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Three quarters of UK businesses are experiencing frustration with cloud adoption, according to a new study from Arlington Research and StratoGen.

The research, which polled 1,000 UK senior business executives, found more than a third (36%) of respondents admitting they host fewer than 10% of their IT applications in the cloud. One in five polled said their main issue with cloud technology was the cost, while 17% cited insufficient availability of applications and 16% opted for a lack of IT support.

The report argues a lack of business growth with cloud technologies is hampering UK executives – and more worryingly, many want out. One in three (33%) of respondents admit they are ready to remove their business off the cloud completely, while a further 31% are considering a similar move. Meanwhile 17% of respondents argue their current cloud solutions prevent their company from growing, and 14% are worried downtime issues impact on employee productivity and earnings.

Naturally, one can raise an eyebrow as to why Stratogen, a provider of VMware cloud hosting with data centres in three continents, would publish survey results decrying the state of cloud technologies. Yet according to chief commercial officer Karl Robinson, it’s not the issue of moving to the cloud, it’s who you move with.

“A cloud platform should always be fit for a business’s individual needs, with in-built scalability to allow for growth without surprising cost hikes,” said Robinson.

He added: “It is clear UK businesses today have a distinct lack of confidence in the cloud’s ability to deliver the benefits it is capable of. To truly instil trust, cloud solutions must prove the business value being provided. Until then, the business benefits of mass cloud adoption will not be realised.”

Recent research on the topic of adoption has been similarly gloomy. More than half of participants in an August study from Oracle admitted their IT organisations were unprepared for the competitive threat of moving to the cloud.